Five Things We Learned from the Ravens' 34-31 win over the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII

Caption1. Nothing could stop this Ravens team from fulfilling its football destiny

Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun

Nothing could stop this Ravens team from fulfilling its football destiny. Not a season of adversity. Not a very good San Francisco 49ers team that scored 17 straight points to make Super Bowl XLVII a game again. And certainly not a 33-minute power outage. The Ravens are your Super Bowl champions, and to do it, they played their hearts out. As the confetti fell in the Superdome, dusting the field on which the Ravens won their second Vince Lombardi Trophy, a celebration more than a decade in the making was underway. Ray Lewis, whose retirement announcement fueled the Ravens at the start of their Super Bowl run, embraced Terrell Suggs, who was trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had just achieved, as he calls it, football immortality. Chykie Brown, a second-year cornerback, did snow angels in a pile of purple and yellow scraps of paper. Owner Steve Bisciotti sprinted from coach John Harbaugh to his franchise quarterback, hugging Joe Flacco (and possibly shoving a check for $120 million in Flacco's hand-warmer). Anquan Boldin hoisted his young son onto his shoulders. And Ed Reed gleefully bobbed from person to person on the stage as he waited for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to hand the trophy to its worthy new owners. Each of the 53 men on the active roster and the dozens of other men and women who helped transform this storybook season from fantasy to non-fiction celebrated Sunday's 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII their own way, but this was something that they earned together. For this group of men, their greatest asset was not the rocket right arm of Flacco or the purple hearts or Lewis and Reed, but unity. They rallied around Torrey Smith early in the season after the sudden death of his little brother. They fought through injuries to Lewis and Suggs and cornerback Lardarius Webb, refusing to make excuses. They made themselves accountable when Harbaugh switched offensive coordinators in early December. They shut out the noise when they lost four of their final five regular-season games. And they survived games in Denver and New England that many people -- myself included -- said they wouldn't win. After persevering through all that, there was no way that the Ravens were going to let a bizarre power outage and a fierce 49ers rally keep them from putting their fingerprints on the Lombardi Trophy. Sure, they made it interesting -- way too interesting for your liking probably. But that's how these Ravens roll. That's how they have always rolled. Suggs seems to get a kick out of the rollercoaster ride of emotions his teams make Baltimoreans endure, but strapping in for Ray's last ride was well worth it on Sunday night. "We said, 'Stay buckled up, Baltimore,' and we did," Reed said after the ride finally came to a halt. The Ravens dominated the 49ers in the first half and jumped ahead by 22 points when Jacoby Jones scored on the longest kickoff return in playoff history. But soon, the lights inside the Superdome would suddenly go out, and after they came back on, the 49ers quickly put up 17 points to pull within a score. After Flacco led the Ravens to a field goal on the most important drive of his career, the defense had to make one last stand -- a fitting end to their middle linebacker's larger-than-life career. The 49ers got four cracks at the end zone from inside the 10-yard line, but the Ravens defense held firm in the red zone, as it has done all season, and the victory was secured moments later when 49ers returner Ted Ginn was slammed to the turf on the game's final play. Cue the confetti and let the celebration begin. The champagne may still be bubbling by the time you read this, as it was a long time coming for guys like Reed, center Matt Birk and wide receiver Anquan Boldin. Sure, everyone was playing for Lewis, but they were playing for themselves, too, which was why it was nice to hear Lewis acknowledge it when lifting the Lombardi Trophy again and say that he wanted to win it for everyone else. All those heart-breaking, bitter defeats alongside Reed and Suggs and Birk and Boldin made Sunday's victory even sweeter. "This is the greatest feeling ever," Lewis later said. It's a feeling that isn't going to fade for a long, long time.

Nothing could stop this Ravens team from fulfilling its football destiny. Not a season of adversity. Not a very good San Francisco 49ers team that scored 17 straight points to make Super Bowl XLVII a game again. And certainly not a 33-minute power outage. The Ravens are your Super Bowl champions, and to do it, they played their hearts out. As the confetti fell in the Superdome, dusting the field on which the Ravens won their second Vince Lombardi Trophy, a celebration more than a decade in the making was underway. Ray Lewis, whose retirement announcement fueled the Ravens at the start of their Super Bowl run, embraced Terrell Suggs, who was trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had just achieved, as he calls it, football immortality. Chykie Brown, a second-year cornerback, did snow angels in a pile of purple and yellow scraps of paper. Owner Steve Bisciotti sprinted from coach John Harbaugh to his franchise quarterback, hugging Joe Flacco (and possibly shoving a check for $120 million in Flacco's hand-warmer). Anquan Boldin hoisted his young son onto his shoulders. And Ed Reed gleefully bobbed from person to person on the stage as he waited for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to hand the trophy to its worthy new owners. Each of the 53 men on the active roster and the dozens of other men and women who helped transform this storybook season from fantasy to non-fiction celebrated Sunday's 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII their own way, but this was something that they earned together. For this group of men, their greatest asset was not the rocket right arm of Flacco or the purple hearts or Lewis and Reed, but unity. They rallied around Torrey Smith early in the season after the sudden death of his little brother. They fought through injuries to Lewis and Suggs and cornerback Lardarius Webb, refusing to make excuses. They made themselves accountable when Harbaugh switched offensive coordinators in early December. They shut out the noise when they lost four of their final five regular-season games. And they survived games in Denver and New England that many people -- myself included -- said they wouldn't win. After persevering through all that, there was no way that the Ravens were going to let a bizarre power outage and a fierce 49ers rally keep them from putting their fingerprints on the Lombardi Trophy. Sure, they made it interesting -- way too interesting for your liking probably. But that's how these Ravens roll. That's how they have always rolled. Suggs seems to get a kick out of the rollercoaster ride of emotions his teams make Baltimoreans endure, but strapping in for Ray's last ride was well worth it on Sunday night. "We said, 'Stay buckled up, Baltimore,' and we did," Reed said after the ride finally came to a halt. The Ravens dominated the 49ers in the first half and jumped ahead by 22 points when Jacoby Jones scored on the longest kickoff return in playoff history. But soon, the lights inside the Superdome would suddenly go out, and after they came back on, the 49ers quickly put up 17 points to pull within a score. After Flacco led the Ravens to a field goal on the most important drive of his career, the defense had to make one last stand -- a fitting end to their middle linebacker's larger-than-life career. The 49ers got four cracks at the end zone from inside the 10-yard line, but the Ravens defense held firm in the red zone, as it has done all season, and the victory was secured moments later when 49ers returner Ted Ginn was slammed to the turf on the game's final play. Cue the confetti and let the celebration begin. The champagne may still be bubbling by the time you read this, as it was a long time coming for guys like Reed, center Matt Birk and wide receiver Anquan Boldin. Sure, everyone was playing for Lewis, but they were playing for themselves, too, which was why it was nice to hear Lewis acknowledge it when lifting the Lombardi Trophy again and say that he wanted to win it for everyone else. All those heart-breaking, bitter defeats alongside Reed and Suggs and Birk and Boldin made Sunday's victory even sweeter. "This is the greatest feeling ever," Lewis later said. It's a feeling that isn't going to fade for a long, long time. (Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun)

Caption2. Joe Flacco is elite, and he will soon have a shiny Super Bowl ring to make it official

Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun

It now seems like so long ago when the Ravens placed their faith in Joseph Vincent Flacco and selected the strong-armed quarterback out of Delaware in the 2008 NFL draft. As the story goes, the Ravens also coveted Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, but after the Atlanta Falcons quickly yanked Ryan off the board, the Ravens turned their focus to Flacco. After a pair of trades in the first round, he was a Raven. But it had taken general manager Ozzie Newsome a little convincing, as he had questions about why Flacco wasn't a team captain during his senior year, according to former Delaware coach K.C. Keeler. But Keeler explained to Newsome -- via offensive coordinator Cam Cameron -- that Flacco was more than capable of carrying the Ravens to where they wanted to go. Flacco went out and did that Sunday night. In the Super Bowl, where legendary quarterbacks are forged and lesser quarterbacks melt under the bright lights -- well, at least before they randomly turn off in the third quarter -- Flacco completed 22 of his 33 throws for 287 yards and three touchdown passes, each of them special in their own way. The first, on the Ravens' first drive on the game, was tossed with expert touch to wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who was trailed by two San Francisco 49ers defenders. In the second quarter, Flacco bootlegged to the right then zipped a pass between a pair of defenders to tight end Dennis Pitta, making a tight throw look easy. And then later in the second quarter, he rainbowed a long pass to wide receiver Jacoby Jones, who caught it about 50 yards down the field, pulled himself off the turf and ran it in for the touchdown. But the drive that won the Super Bowl and secured Flacco's place at the big-boy quarterback table came in the fourth quarter, with the Ravens clinging to a two-point lead. The 49ers had just pulled within two points after a touchdown run by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and the game was nearly falling out of the Ravens' grasp. But Flacco put together the most important field-goal drive of his life. He did a lot of handing off on the drive, sure, but on that key 3rd-and-1 play at midfield, Flacco checked out of a run and made a precise back-shoulder throw to Boldin, who caught the pass with cornerback Carlos Rogers draped all over him. When Justin Tucker's 38-yard field goal split the uprights, the Ravens had taken nearly six minutes off the clock with a 10-play drive. The Ravens, now up by five points, forced the 49ers to play for a touchdown instead of a field goal, and they would survive that furious 49ers rally to win the game. The victory will serve as a coronation of sorts for Flacco, who has won over a lot of doubters during this amazing postseason run. With 11 touchdowns, Flacco tied Joe Montana and Kurt Warner for the most touchdown passes in a single postseason, and with no interceptions, he joined Montana as one the only quarterbacks with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions in the same postseason (Montana did it in three games). We just witnessed one of the greatest postseasons a quarterback has ever had, folks, and it should leave little debate about whether Flacco is a so-called elite quarterback. Every individual has his or her own checklist of what makes a quarterback elite, and the last and most important thing to check off is usually a championship ring. Flacco will be getting fitted for one of those in the very near future, and that makes him elite in my book, not that it really matters. What matters is that Flacco is a damn good quarterback who wins a lot of football games, and he just won the biggest game that will be played this year. It understandably took Flacco a few years to get to the pinnacle of his profession. But he has rewarded the Ravens for taking that leap of faith with him back in 2008, and they will soon reward him with an elite contract extension. Once that matter is resolved, Flacco can focus on leading the Ravens into life without Ray Lewis -- and probably back to at least one more Super Bowl before his own career ends.

It now seems like so long ago when the Ravens placed their faith in Joseph Vincent Flacco and selected the strong-armed quarterback out of Delaware in the 2008 NFL draft. As the story goes, the Ravens also coveted Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, but after the Atlanta Falcons quickly yanked Ryan off the board, the Ravens turned their focus to Flacco. After a pair of trades in the first round, he was a Raven. But it had taken general manager Ozzie Newsome a little convincing, as he had questions about why Flacco wasn't a team captain during his senior year, according to former Delaware coach K.C. Keeler. But Keeler explained to Newsome -- via offensive coordinator Cam Cameron -- that Flacco was more than capable of carrying the Ravens to where they wanted to go. Flacco went out and did that Sunday night. In the Super Bowl, where legendary quarterbacks are forged and lesser quarterbacks melt under the bright lights -- well, at least before they randomly turn off in the third quarter -- Flacco completed 22 of his 33 throws for 287 yards and three touchdown passes, each of them special in their own way. The first, on the Ravens' first drive on the game, was tossed with expert touch to wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who was trailed by two San Francisco 49ers defenders. In the second quarter, Flacco bootlegged to the right then zipped a pass between a pair of defenders to tight end Dennis Pitta, making a tight throw look easy. And then later in the second quarter, he rainbowed a long pass to wide receiver Jacoby Jones, who caught it about 50 yards down the field, pulled himself off the turf and ran it in for the touchdown. But the drive that won the Super Bowl and secured Flacco's place at the big-boy quarterback table came in the fourth quarter, with the Ravens clinging to a two-point lead. The 49ers had just pulled within two points after a touchdown run by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and the game was nearly falling out of the Ravens' grasp. But Flacco put together the most important field-goal drive of his life. He did a lot of handing off on the drive, sure, but on that key 3rd-and-1 play at midfield, Flacco checked out of a run and made a precise back-shoulder throw to Boldin, who caught the pass with cornerback Carlos Rogers draped all over him. When Justin Tucker's 38-yard field goal split the uprights, the Ravens had taken nearly six minutes off the clock with a 10-play drive. The Ravens, now up by five points, forced the 49ers to play for a touchdown instead of a field goal, and they would survive that furious 49ers rally to win the game. The victory will serve as a coronation of sorts for Flacco, who has won over a lot of doubters during this amazing postseason run. With 11 touchdowns, Flacco tied Joe Montana and Kurt Warner for the most touchdown passes in a single postseason, and with no interceptions, he joined Montana as one the only quarterbacks with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions in the same postseason (Montana did it in three games). We just witnessed one of the greatest postseasons a quarterback has ever had, folks, and it should leave little debate about whether Flacco is a so-called elite quarterback. Every individual has his or her own checklist of what makes a quarterback elite, and the last and most important thing to check off is usually a championship ring. Flacco will be getting fitted for one of those in the very near future, and that makes him elite in my book, not that it really matters. What matters is that Flacco is a damn good quarterback who wins a lot of football games, and he just won the biggest game that will be played this year. It understandably took Flacco a few years to get to the pinnacle of his profession. But he has rewarded the Ravens for taking that leap of faith with him back in 2008, and they will soon reward him with an elite contract extension. Once that matter is resolved, Flacco can focus on leading the Ravens into life without Ray Lewis -- and probably back to at least one more Super Bowl before his own career ends. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun)